International School for Young Astrophysicists on Radiative Transfer in Solar and Stellar atmospheres

Astronomical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Tatranská Lomnica (AI SAS) was a venue of an international school on radiative transfer in atmospheres of the Sun and stars, which took place from 29 May to 2 June 2017. The school provided students of astronomy and astrophysics and early-career young researchers from six countries series of lectures given by Prof. Petr Heinzel from the Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Ondřejov, who is a leading expert in theory and modeling of radiative transfer in atmospheres of the Sun and stars, solar prominences, and flares. His lectures given in English were followed by 21 school participants coming from Slovakia (14), Czech Republic (2), Poland (2), Slovenia (1), Russia (1), and Georgia (1). A program of the school was supplemented by topical lectures and exercises prepared by researchers from AI SAS. Dr. Pavol Schwartz spoke about the CHIANTI database of atomic data used in spectroscopy of the solar atmosphere and Dr. Ján Budaj prepared a hands-on session on spectral line formation in stellar atmospheres. Under his guidance school participants practiced computing spectral line profiles by the code ShellSpec created by the lecturer. Dr. Július Koza contributed by a lecture on polarization of spectral lines, its observation and analysis by the Stokes vector. During a break between lectures participants had an opportunity to see a real solar spectrum by the small portable spectrograph Shelyak. At the end of the school the participants visited the Observatory Skalnaté Pleso to see its facilities including the largest astronomical telescope in Slovakia with the primary mirror diameter of 1.3 m. Its construction was fully sponsored by EU Structural Funds acquired by AI SAS. This school was the seventh one in a series of schools organized in AI SAS since 2004. More details can be found at the school webpage:
https://www.astro.sk/~koza/school2017/.

Dr. Július Koza, Dr. Pavol Schwartz
Astronomical Institute SAS

Spoločná snímka účastníkov školy. / A common photo of school participants.